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LinkedIn Sponsored Feed Updates Finally! Look Organic, Actually Paid

You’ve been dreaming about a more robust LinkedIn paid-organic social distribution machine. Well now it’s finally here! The long-awaited “Sponsored updates” from LinkedIn were just rolled out. We’ve been waiting for LI to augment their limited repertoire of traditional ad units for a long time. If you can get over the high price tag, it just might be worth it. What’s notable is that now LI has jumped into the game of fielding paid ads that look organic. Hence the moniker, “Paid organic.” The ads sport a grayed-in “Sponsored” label but users are likely to accept them. Read on for the scrummy details:

So, what are sponsored updates? They are an organic-looking ad unit exclusively (thus far) for company profiles that allow marketers to promote organic content. This concept is not unfamiliar. Facebook has been #1 in this game for quite some time. Twitter’s making serious strides with Twitter Ads.

LinkedIn sponsored posts join the growing list of paid organic ad units emerging as staples in the social media marketing world. These types of ads are the obvious choice as social platforms walk the line between pleasing users and shareholders. Here are the most popular ad types.

There are a few choice reasons that make these new ad units from LinkedIn so newsworthy:

First, instead of banishing your ads to the right-hand side out of sight, these ads are in your face; smack dab in the home page feed on desktops, smartphones and tablets.

Mobile Alert: At this time, promoted posts are the only way to reach smartphone users with ads in LI.

Promoted posts work really well for many different types of content. (think content snippets, blog posts, images/graphics, videos and presentations).

Notwithstanding the foregoing, LinkedIn Ads Guidelines still apply and they are enforced. For instance your ad will be rejected if you use the the branded term “LinkedIn” as the headline of your promoted post.

Filter targets by users who are already connected to your company page or just market to everybody. Talk about a community builder!

There are primarily two ways to go about executing a sponsored update. Method one, start from the LI Ads UI. Select “Create a New Campaign.” Then follow the steps to name your campaign, choose your targeting, select bidding options and be on your merry way. Easy. Method two: After posting content to your LI home feed, choose the gray “Sponsored Update” button right under your post. You’ll be redirected to your ads platform to follow the same steps as method one.

Like traditional ads marketers can choose either CPC or CPM pricing, but it might be a good idea to sleep with one eye open if you’re testing out these ad units. We’ve run tests and achieved CPC bid range suggestions between $4-7. YEOWZA! Smaller advertisers may want to steer clear of this ad unit. Another thing to watch closely regarding budget: LinkedIn exceeded the daily budget cap on our first test. In one instance we set the limit at $50/day and within 30 minutes had spent $62. This appears to be a radical error. However every ad platform has a bit of lag from when it’s shut off until it stops spending. When dealing with $6.00 clicks, high CTRs and small daily spend caps, it does not take very many clicks to result in a seemingly high-percentage overage.

Finally! A LI ad unit that’s easy to use! They provide real-time analytics, so you can clearly see where your clicks are coming from. From here, ads managers can start, stop and make adjustments to campaigns on the fly.

Keep in mind, content is king. If you would like to use this type of paid organic ad unit to increase engagement, make sure your content is engaging and compelling. Be sure to use images that “pop” and carefully select a targeted audience who has invested interest in what you’re posting.

Have you tried LI Sponsored updates? If so, let us know how you use them and if you’re happy with the results.

Cover image: flicker: smi23le

Spook SEO

Hello Gretchen. Thanks for the update! I’ve never been such a big fan of linkedIn but with this current update about their sponsored feed, I just might give them an even closer look. Great post!

Posted August 8, 2013

Gretchen Egeberg

Thank you Spook SEO! I think checking out sponsored updates is worth a try. Just make sure the spend doesn’t pull a fast one on you. Let us know what you think!

Posted August 8, 2013

Terry

I don’t want to point any fingers, but… I tested an ad several months back with a $100 budget. I ran through the budget in just a few minutes and the clicks analytics was able to track showed the time on site for those Linkedin visitors was less than 3 seconds.

Reminded me of the old days in FindWhat.com

Posted August 8, 2013

Gretchen Egeberg

Hi Terry. Sorry to hear your test didn’t pan out as expected. Were you using LI’s traditional ad unit? Maybe there was a disconnect between the content in your ad and the landing page? Hope you find better results with your next test.

Posted August 8, 2013

Gretchen Egeberg

Thanks Janel! Glad you liked the post. Do you have any ideas or plans of what you’d like to test when you get the chance?

Posted August 8, 2013

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Whether with clay or ad creative, Gretchen’s hands are always dirty. Gretchen is an Online Marketing Production Specialist at aimClear, where she specializes in Facebook and LinkedIn ads production. From targeting to creative to campaign management and optimization, if it has to do with social ads, Gretchen’s most likely involved.
With no two days being exactly the same, Gretchen credits the search marketing industry as having the perfect balance between business and creative. “There is an overwhelming amount of passion in this line of work,” she says. “People enjoy what they do, they enjoy each other and they work incredibly hard. It’s pretty darn inspiring.”